The Department of Mysteries
by WillowBreeze689
Summary: please R&R! Harry is all grown up and working at the ministry of magic
1. Chapter 1 A New Beginning

**Chapter 1: A New Beginning **

A man with glasses and black, messy hair walked out of a highly secure room late one evening. After he closed the door the walls spun around, making him feel slightly dizzy. The man walked across the room and carefully chose another door. He was on his way home from a tiring day of work at the Ministry of Magic. He walked down the dark corridor and bumped into someone he would much rather not be around, Draco Malfoy. "Watch where you're going Potter!" he spat. Harry Potter walked away ignoring what Malfoy had said and thought about how nice it would be if he could just apparate home, but as that was impossible to do he had to use floo powder. He walked fast down the hall since he was running late.

Finally he reached the lift and entered; the grills shut with a crash behind him. The lift slowly ascended and came to a stop. A cool female voice said "The Atrium," the grills slid open and Harry walked out into a very long hall with dark wooden floors. The hall was crowded with many wizards on their way home. Harry however didn't pay attention to them he was looking at a large fountain halfway down the Atrium, as Harry looked at the witch and wizard placed on it, he remembered only too well the time when he chased Bellatrix Lestrange to this very room. She had killed his god father, Sirius Black. Harry had become possessed by Lord Voldemort that night - he shuddered with this thought.

He was brought back to the present by someone saying "Hi Harry!" Harry looked to his right: it was Neville Longbottom. Neville was now working as an Auror for the Ministry of Magic, because he was determined to stop innocent people from getting hurt, like their parents had.

"Hullo, Neville," Harry said glumly.

"How are you, Harry?" Neville asked excitedly.

"Tired" Harry said. "Sorry, but I can't talk now, I've got to get home, I'm late."

"Ok," Neville said, looking a bit disappointed. "See you tomorrow Harry!"

"Bye," Harry said as he walked off to the left wall where there were many fireplaces with people walking into the green flames. Harry went to the only fireplace left, tossed in some floo powder, and stepped into the green flames.

"Headmistress Office, Hogwarts," he commanded.

He swirled around tucking his elbows in so they wouldn't hit the sides. Minutes later he landed in a circular room with many moving pictures of all the previous Headmasters and Headmistresses of Hogwarts. He wiped the soot from his glasses and robes and started to walk towards some steps when a voice called out "I still think you would have done well in Slytherin."

"Oh shut up." Harry said to the Sorting Hat.

"Now is that any way to talk to the Sorting Hat, Harry?"

Harry turned around and said "Sorry professor Dumbledor," to a portrait of a man with half-moon spectacles and a long gray beard. Harry turned back around and slumped up the steps that led to the next room.

"Harry! There you are. You're late - I was so worried," Hermione said apprehensively.

"I'm sorry," Harry said giving her a kiss on the cheek. "I had a lot to do at work today; I got out as soon as I could."

"That's ok," Hermione said, and sat back down on her arm chair.

"Happy second anniversary!" Harry said, and with a flick of his wand he held out two dozen red roses for Hermione.

"Oh, Harry they're beautiful!" Hermione exclaimed. She jumped up and gave Harry a big hug.

"I had the Elves make us a special dinner for tonight. I offered to pay them extra - I hope you don't mind." Hermione said looking at Harry.

"That's fine," Harry said with a smile. Once Hermione became Headmistress of Hogwarts she convinced the house Elves, along with the help of Doby, that they would be much happier if they received pay.

They both walked into their little dining room, which Hermione had adorned with romantic candles and little pink hearts that magically floated around the room. She whipped up a vase for her roses and placed them in the middle of the round table. Harry poked a floating heart and it popped.

"Sorry," he said sheepishly.

"It's alright, I popped one too," Hermione told him.

They sat down in their usual seats, and waited for their supper to appear on their plates.

"So how was your day?" Harry asked Hermione, as he picked up his fork to begin eating.

"It was good, except for when these two first-years dropped dung bombs in the halls - Filch was really angry," Hermione laughed. "They are always playing pranks."

"That sounds like Fred and George - are they twins, too?"

"No," Hermione replied "but they are both in Griffindor, and a lot of their prank supplies come from the Weasley's Wizarding Weezes. This one prank they did last week had a poor girl stuck to a toilet with the foulest smell ever coming from the stall. She told her friend that she couldn't get off the toilet and her friend immediately came to get me. The unfortunate girl was so embarrassed. The boys were quite disappointed when they found out I knew how to get her off the toilet because Fred had guaranteed them that no one would be able to figure out how to remove the spell from the toilet. I guess Fred didn't know that George had told me about it. In fact Fred was quite disappointed as well."

Harry laughed.

"They are quite the mischievous little pair, although I don't know if they will be able to live up to Fred and George's standard," Hermione said with a smile.

"Speaking of mischievous people, guess who I literally ran into today," Harry said.

"Who?" Hermione asked.

"Malfoy, he was heading towards the Department of Mysteries."

"What was he doing down there?"

"I don't know."

"He might be up to something, you should probably keep a close eye on him," Hermione commented looking slightly worried.

"So how was your dinner?" Hermione asked, noticing that Harry was finished eating.

"It was delicious."

"You're welcome," she said with a big grin.

"Wow, its really late - we should probably get to bed," Harry said looking down at his watch.

They both got up from the table as the scraps of food miraculously disappeared from the golden plates. Hermione put out the flames of the candles and got rid of the floating hearts as Harry put away the glistening plates.


	2. Chapter 2 The Dream

**Chapter 2: The Dream **

Harry looked down a dimly lit rectangular room with many stone steps, descending down to a dais. Harry surveyed his surroundings and saw that there we many people around him and flashes of light zipping past everyone. Before Harry could take in anymore of his surroundings some one grabbed him from behind, chocking him. Harry used the first spell that came to mind "….." he turned around to see his attacker….. Harry whipped away the sweat that was rolling down his face and continued to look around him, and then he saw a familiar face. Sirius was inches away from a black veil on the dais; Harry wanted to run down to him and push him away from the veil but he couldn't move his feet, it was as though someone glued his feet to the floor. After struggling for two minutes he got one leg free and looked to where Sirius was dueling, just then a jet of light hit Sirius and he toppled backwards towards the veil

"SIRUIS" Harry yelled as he watched Sirius fall. He felt someone shaking him and saying his name.

"Harry. . . Harry wake up."

Harry opened his eyes to see Hermione looking down at him.

"You must have been having a pretty bad dream," she said holding his hand.

"Yeah," he dazedly replied, he was still in shock from the dream, and his mind was racing. "I was dreaming of when Sirius was killed. I probably had it because I was thinking about that day when I saw the fountain while leaving work yesterday."

"Probably," Hermione said getting out of bed, have you visited Sirius recently?"

"No, the last time I talked to him was about four months ago," he replied.

"Maybe you would feel better if you went and talked to him today."

"Yeah, I think I will," Harry said determinedly.

"Before you go to work could you run this up to Hedwig in the owlery?"

Hermione asked handing him a piece of parchment.

"What is it?" Harry inquired.

"I'm making a reservation for tonight to that new restaurant in Hogsmeade," she said with a smile, "it's for our anniversary, I tried to make one yesterday but they were packed, I guess it's really popular."

"What's the name of it?" Harry asked as he was getting changed.

"Lovegood," Hermione replied, "it's supposed to be a very _unique_ restaurant."

"You don't think--" Harry said with a questioning look on his face.

"Oh," Hermione laughed, "I don't know, I guess well find out tonight."

"Yeah," Harry said looking in the mirror, trying to flatten his untidy hair.

"_Why are you still trying, you know it's never going to work."_

"Ugh, Hermione, Why did I let buy this talking mirror?" Harry asked angrily.

"Well,_ I_ like it, it always complements _me_," she said.

"But I thought that's what you have me for?" Harry said grinning. They both laughed and Harry gave Hermione a kiss.

Harry ate breakfast in the Great Hall with Hermione. Once he was finished started walking up to the owlery, broom in hand and wondering whether the new restaurant, 'Lovegood', was owned by a girl a girl he knew from school named Luna Lovegood, or 'Loony Lovegood' as most of the school had called her. If it is, he thought, this was going to be a very _strange_ dinner. He had not seen Luna since Ginny's graduation party three years ago. He was just thinking what kind of food Luna might serve when a crying girl came running past him. He looked up to see what she was running from. Something misty and silver was farther down the corridor, Harry walked down to see what it was, or rather _who _it was because he just realized it was a ghost.

"Come to yell at me for telling off that stupid girl," said an angry accusing voice.

"No, Myrtle, I didn't," said Harry.

"People think its ok to come and use _my _bathroom when they know Hermione reserved it for _me_! I assume they just want to poke fun at poor, moping, moaning Myrtle."

"She looked young; maybe she was a first year and didn't know the bathroom was reserved for you."

"You always make me feel better Harry," Myrtle said gloomily. Harry could see tears rolling down her silvery cheeks. "I still wish you would have died your second year, then I would have had someone to share my toilet with, it gets so lonely sometimes. How come you never come and visit me anymore?"

"Sorry I've been really busy with work, in-fact if I don't go now I'm going to be late, bye."

"Bye, come visit me sometime," she said unhappily.

"Ok," Harry lied as he walked away and headed to the owlery.

Once he arrived at the owlery he set down his broom on an area of ground free of owl droppings. He called out for Hedwig and the snowy white owl gracefully flew down and landed on Harry's out stretched arm.

"Hi Hedwig, have a nice nap?" he asked petting her, she cooed in reply. Hedwig nibbled Harry's ear affectionately as he tied the reservation paper to he outstretched leg.

"This goes to the Lovegood restaurant in Hogsmeade," he told her. She then took flight and Harry watched her disappear over the trees of the Forbidden Forest

"Bye, Hedwig" he called after her. Harry turned away from the window and picked up his broom, it was a Star Light 3000 the fastest broom on the market; it had a sleek dark polished wooden handle and perfectly straight twigs in the tail.

Harry mounted his broom, happy with his decision to fly to work rather than go by floo powder. I had been a while since he had flown, and it felt great. H e zoomed over to the Quidditch pitch, which brought back many very happy and also miserable memories, like the time Harry had been hit by a bludger in the arm and Professor Lockhart , the Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher at the time, ad tried to fix it but instead took all the bones out. Harry spent a very painful night in the hospital wing re-growing the bones.

He arrived in London an hour later, his attempts at flattening his hair at home worthless since his hair was now even messier from the wind. Harry looked around to make sure no one was with in eye sight of him and put a concealing charm on his broom so no one would steal it. H e placed it behind a dumpster and walked over to an old red telephone box. He slid the door shut and picked up the receiver, he dialed six, two, four, four, two; a second later he heard a familiar female voice.

"Welcome to the Ministry of Magic. Please State your name and business."

"Harry Potter, Department of Mysteries," he muttered. The telephone box slowly sunk into the ground, as Harry remembered he was going to talk to Sirius today; he would have to get permission from the Minister of Magic first though.

Harry arrived at the Atrium a minute later and walked down the hall to the lifts not really noticing anything going on around him, lost in thought about what he was going to say to Sirius, maybe he would tell him about the dream he had last night.

He entered the lift at the end of the hall; there were already two wizards in it a small plump witch with blond curly hair who Harry didn't know, and Neville Longbottom.

"Hi Harry!" he said excitedly. Harry smiled weakly, Neville always seemed happy to see him.

"Hello Neville. How's work, did you catch Boris Thompson yet?"

"No but Edmund just got some good clues about where he might be hiding."

"That's good," Harry said "How's Ginny doing?"

"She's good, were going to have another baby. I really hope it's a boy this time." Neville said very happily.

"That's great Neville."

"Yeah," he said smiling. "Are you going to see Ron anytime soon?"

Harry shook his head yes.

"Could you tell him for me? We haven't had a chance to go to the post office yet."

"Sure I will," Harry said.

"Level two, Department of Magical Law Enforcement, including the Improper Use of Magic Office, Auror Headquarters, and Wizengamot Administrative Services," said a woman's voice.

"Well this is my stop." Neville said, "Bye Harry."

"Bye, tell Ginny and Harriet I said 'hello'."

"Alright," Neville called back as he walked out of the lift.

Harry stood in the lift with only that plump witch now, trying to suppress a small laugh, Neville and Ginny had wanted to name the first child after him, however they had a girl so they decided to name her Harriet instead.

Finally the lift came to the Ministers level. Harry got out, walked to the assistant ministers office, opened the door and said "Ginny's having another baby."

"What!" Ron said in surprise. "How did you find out before me?"

"Neville just told me on the lift, they haven't had time to send out any owls."

"Oh ok, I suppose I will help pass the news along. All of a sudden Ron had an angry look on his face.

"Bloody hell, Fred and George really make me angry sometimes. Look at what they sent me this morning!" He shoved a piece of parchment in Harry's hand. There was a green skull with a serpent coming out of its mouth and at the bottom it said _'_The Dark Lord is back_!'_ then the Dark mark disappeared and new words came on the parchment, 'Ha-Ha, Just Kidding, Love Fred and George'. Harry laughed.

"That really scared me, I thought, but Harry destroyed him, how could he come back? I was just about to go alert the Daily Prophet when it flashed to Fred and George."

"Hermione and I were just talking about Fred and George last night." Harry told him about the two first years that dropped dung bombs.

"Filch is going to have his hands full if they are anything like Fred and George." Ron said laughing.

"So how have you been mate?" Harry asked.

"Pretty good," Ron said looking down at his desk, there was parchment piled all over it. "Look at all this paperwork I have to do!" he said picking up some parchment in both hands and waving it wildly around his head. "I guess that's what I get for agreeing to be Assistant Minister for Percy. I should have stayed on the Quidditch team like Ginny, there's no paper work doing that!"

"Yeah Harry said amused. After graduating from Hogwarts Ron became Keeper for the English Quidditch team, and a year later Ginny was seeker.

"Well, I've got to get going.

"Alright, see you, mate" Ron said and began to read some parchment on the top of the pile.

"Bye," Harry called walking out the door, then he remembered that Ron hasn't come to visit for a while so he turned back around and put his head through the door way.

"Hey, do you want to come over tomorrow after work?"

Ron looked up from the parchment.

"Sure," he said smiling.

Harry knocked on a brown door, with the words Minister of Magic inscribed on it. "Come in," called a voice from within the room. Harry walked in hoping that this visit would be short, Percy was always acting as though he was superior to Harry, and of course he was, being the minister and all, but Percy took it to an extreme. Not wanting to beet around the bush Harry came right out and said what he wanted to ask.

"Hey Percy, do you think I could go and talk with Sirius and maybe my mum and dad this morning?"

Percy was so absorbed in his work he didn't even look up. Harry was thankful for this.

"Sure, just don't stay there too long." Percy answered.

"Thanks," Harry said and he walked out the door.


End file.
